A Happy New Year does start on January 1st!

With 2009 rapidly coming to a close, we look ahead with hope and best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year.

If you need a little inspiration to set a better course for yourself in 2010, WSBE Rhode Island PBS features programs on January 1st that can help lift and empower you:

Achieving Your Dreams with Ken Blanchard (12:30 P.M.)

Achieving Your Dreams: with Ken Blanchard is more than a prescription for success for business-minded folks. His inspirational message and humorous personal stories, served up with the wit and infectious charm that is uniquely Ken's, are invaluable to anyone who wants to live a more fulfilling life. Ken shares insightful tips and tools for leading a life of balance and purpose, gaining peace of mind, personal satisfaction, and accomplishing noble goals.

Michael Bernard Beckwith: The Answer is You (1:30 P.M.)

In this 60-minute PBS special, Michael Beckwith addresses a sold out audience in downtown Los Angeles at L.A. Live. He speaks to universal questions faced by people of all and any faith, regarding connection to the divine, manifesting goodness and health for you and your loved ones, the nature of prosperity, understanding a larger purpose in life and adopting the mind set and spiritual attitude that empowers individuals to live rich, fulfilling, positive lives.

Dr. Wayne Dyer: Excuses Begone! (3 P.M.)

Learn once and for all how to change your thoughts to improve the quality of your life: no more excuses! In this exciting live presentation recorded in Maui, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer reveals a powerful seven-step paradigm that will allow you to drop your excuses and change the lifelong thinking habits that prevent you from living at your highest levels of happiness and success. Listen as Wayne explains how you can actually change your brain chemistry, align your thoughts to a higher place where excuses do not exist, and use the power of contemplation to attract and fulfill your desires.

Unstuck with Dr. James Gordon (6 P.M.)

UNSTUCK with James S. Gordon is designed to help those experiencing stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction, as well as millions of Americans who are diagnosed with clinical depression. Dr. Gordon demonstrates his approach in a way that's easy to understand and gives people the tools to help themselves, without antidepressants or other drugs. The groundbreaking, inspiring program, which he has successfully used in the U.S. and around the world, offers easy but powerful exercises that reduce stress and uncover the joy in life.

Science of Healing with Dr. Esther Sternberg (7:30 P.M.)

Author and medical researcher Dr. Esther Sternberg examines the role the brain plays in healing. The program addresses some critical questions: What is healing? Is there a mind/body connection? What happens in the brain when healing occurs? What role does emotion play? Dr. Sternberg uses her own story of illness and recovery as a parallel to her investigation of what scientists are learning about the mind/body connection.

Gov. Don Carcieri and Sid the Science Kid on the H1N1vaccine

Special Thanksgiving Programming

Before, between, and after all of the meeting, greeting, heating, seating, and eating you may be planning for Thanksgiving Day, WSBE Rhode Island PBS has ideal family entertainment. We're ready when you are!

Wednesday, November 25

8 P.M. AMERICAN MASTERS Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character
(Re-broadcast on Thanksgiving Day at 3:30 P.M.)

9:30 P.M. James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
(re-broadcast on Thanksgiving Day at 2 P.M.)

The program salutes one of Hollywood's best-loved actors. Stewart, who started his career as a magician and accordionist, rose to stardom portraying ordinary men who called on their interior strengths to accomplish extraordinary things. Produced and directed by David Heeley and hosted by Johnny Carson, James Stewart: A Wonderful Life features interviews with Hollywood luminaries and visits to the sets of Stewart's most popular films, creating a moving tribute to a truly unforgettable actor.


Thursday, November 26 (Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)

2 P.M. Re-broadcast of James Stewart: A Wonderful Life

3:30 P.M. Re-broadcast of AMERICAN MASTERS Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character

5 P.M. Full 6-hour series Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America


Friday, November 27

1 - 6 P.M. Wishbone marathon.  
#201 “Halloween Hound: The Legend of the Creepy Collars" The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Part 1
#202 "Halloween Hound" Part 2
#203 “The Prince of Wags” Henry IV
#204 “Groomed for Greatness” Great Expectations
#205 “A Bone of Contention” The Courtship of Miles Standish
#206 “War of the Noses” The Black Arrow
#207 “Moonbone” The Moonstone
#208 “Barking at Buddha” Monkey
#209 “Pup Fiction” Northanger Abbey
#210 “The Roamin’ Nose” The Aeneid

8:30 P.M. MASTERPIECE CLASSIC Wuthering Heights
The Earnshaw children expect gifts from their father when he returns to Wuthering Heights after a trip, but are instead greeted with the arrival of Heathcliff, a young Gypsy boy who has come to live with them. Quiet and mysterious, Heathcliff is befriended by Cathy Earnshaw, and the two become inseparable. In adulthood, their bond deepens to love, but a forced absence opens Cathy to the affections of a different suitor — Edgar Linton. Given the choice between a life of comfort and a profound love, Cathy's actions have repercussions for multiple generations in this haunting story of turbulent passion and revenge. Tom Hardy (Oliver Twist) stars as Heathcliff, with newcomer Charlotte Riley as Cathy. Watch behind-the-scenes video here.

Tale of a Monarch

My father passed in March 2006. What my brother and I thought might be a bad cold or even pneumonia was actually a massive coronary that unexpectedly but quite efficiently swept our dad from our lives. Stunned, I remember standing outside the hospital and saying to my brother, "We're orphans." An odd reaction to be sure, especially for a grown woman with 4 college and high school children of her own. Having lost my mother a little more than a year before, the sense of loss and abandonment was overwhelming.

About a year after my dad passed, monarch butterflies started to appear around me in greater frequency than I considered usual, and in places I considered odd. I was not looking for butterflies, mind you - but each seemed to make sure I noticed it, fluttering close enough to demand my attention.

One of the oddest places was right on the beach at Scarborough. Not the grassy area where wildflowers grow, but the breezy sandy beach. I've seen plenty of sea gulls there, but never the elegantly fragile orange and black wings of a monarch butterfly. Yet that summer, it happened a few times.

The other oddest place was right here at work. On the north side of the station building is storage with double garage doors. The "driveway" area is completely paved with aging asphalt, and abuts another commercial property's paved driveway. There is a tall steel microwave tower, a dumpster, and chain link fencing. The only thing remotely green are weeds invading cracks in the pavement.

One pleasant afternoon that summer of 2007, I was outside enjoying the weather as I edited some material. Sitting on a low concrete platform near the door, I was visited by a monarch butterfly. I had never seen butterflies in that area before - moths and other insects, maybe, but not butterflies, and certainly not monarchs. This one didn't just flutter by. It actually landed on my knee! It perched, opened and closed its wings a few times, then fluttered off.

And thoughts of my dad immediately washed over me.

I share this very personal story with you because I just watched the full version of 41, a remarkable story about the Station nightclub fire's youngest victim, Nicholas O'Neill.WSBE Rhode Island PBS airs this documentary tonight at 8 P.M. I invite you to watch the film, too, and hear the way this young man touched - touches - lives of those around him in unexpected and lingering ways.

Your comments about the film and stories of your own experiences are most welcome.

- Lucie Raposo Houle